


sweet on you

by tealady19



Series: sweet on you [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Demon Shiro (Voltron), Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff, Witch Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22744138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tealady19/pseuds/tealady19
Summary: Keith tries to woo Shiro with cute Valentine's things, but the demon in question isn't quite getting the message.  Keith isn't about to give up so easily, though.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: sweet on you [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1990756
Comments: 26
Kudos: 194
Collections: Sheithlentines 2020





	sweet on you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hymnaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hymnaria/gifts).



> Happy Sheithlentine's Hymnaria! Your list was full of super great prompts, but I have such a soft spot for witch!Keith so I couldn't resist this one. Also my first time writing an AU, so thanks for the idea! I hope you enjoy, I had a lot of fun with this :D
> 
> Also thank you to [ragdollrory](http://twitter.com/ragdollrory) for reading this over for me!

Kosmo, as he's finally told Keith he'd like to be called, has been behaving himself recently. It's disconcerting.

The wolf-shaped familiar is usually found flopped on the floor, tongue lolling, completely obstructing anyone who wants to pass by. He's told Keith it's because anyone who has to get anywhere must pay the toll of three pets exactly, though he'll take more if he can get them. Keith thinks it would have been more appropriate for his familiar to take a weasel shape, since he likes to con people for anything he can: food, pets, kisses. He's a greedy asshole and Keith loves him.

He doesn't love his new mission to set Keith up with the demon who runs the herbal shop Keith frequents for potion making. Shiro’s actually a good friend - Keith accidentally summoned him a few summers ago when he was practicing making a sleeping draught. He had been whispering the incantation over the cooling potion and must have mispronounced one word or other, because suddenly the potion disappeared, and a tall, white haired demon was standing in the kitchen of his modest flat.

They had stared wide-eyed at each other for a tense minute, before Shiro had burst out laughing. It had been exactly the opposite reaction Keith had been expecting; apparently he’d managed to interrupt a potentially terrible interaction with a customer, and Shiro was more than happy to make a simple deal to fulfil the surprise contract. A new set of ingredients for the sleeping draught (and some careful pronunciation coaching that was more teasing than instruction) later, Keith and Shiro had developed more of a friendship than either had expected from an accidental summoning.

Predictably, Keith had gone and fallen in love with him.

That had been years ago, and Keith’s still nursing his stupid crush. He’s in Shiro’s shop at least once a week, so he’s gotten pretty good at hiding it.

When he’d bound Kosmo to him last summer, he hadn’t anticipated his new familiar would immediately start to meddle in his life. Looking at his other friends, though, he probably should have expected it.

He’s currently debating over a selection of loose teas Shiro makes - he’s grown partial to the one with hawthorne, but the blend with marigold is new and appealing. He twists the top off the sample jar to smell, the scent sweeter than he’d anticipated. Kosmo, in his supreme grace, had decided not to visit the shop with Keith this time, since he usually manages to make a mess or get in the way somehow, no matter how cute Shiro thinks he is. Keith’s looking for something to bring home to him, even though he doesn’t deserve a treat.

“Oh, that’s a good choice,” says a voice directly into Keith’s ear. His feet don’t actually leave the ground as he jolts in place, but it’s a near thing. Shiro chuckles as he leans over his shoulder, smile curling on his lips and little fangs poking out. Keith has a thing for cute assholes; he knows this. He’s never done anything about it.

Besides, Shiro is perfectly pleasant to most people he interacts with. It’s really only Keith, and maybe Allura, who runs the shop with him, who get to see this side of him. It’s a privilege, Keith reminds himself as he steadies the shelf of glass bottles.

“You okay there?”

Keith glares at him over his shoulder, but it’s lacking heat. “Oh, just fine. It wouldn’t have been my fault if all these had ended up on the floor, so no worries here.”

The tip of Shiro’s pink tongue pokes out over his teeth, and Keith has to look away before he blushes too hard.

“But that is a good choice, I put lots of work into those new blends.” Shiro steps around to the side and gestures to a row of teas, including the marigold one Keith had been eyeing.

“It smells really sweet, I was surprised.”

“Yeah, I thought it would be good as a post-meal drink. Good for digestion and dessert!” Shiro grins like he’s solved all of humanity’s problems. Keith snorts.

“Like you’ve ever been able to resist dessert in your life.”

Shiro pouts, but before he can say anything else, Allura is coming over with a string of fairy lights in her hands.

“Shiro, can you put these up over the windows? I can’t reach up there.” She hands him the string of coloured lights, greeting Keith with a smile and a subtle wink.

Shiro narrows his eyes at her. “You can literally stretch yourself, you can reach it.”

“Excuse me, I do not _stretch myself_ -” Keith has a sudden image of a normal sized Allura with eight foot arms, and has to bite his lips to keep his laughter on the inside. He has seen her change shape, so it’s conceivable. “And you are the one chatting and not working, so it’s time you do.” She points to where she wants the lights hung, and Shiro sighs. He goes to do it all the same.

“Also we get to watch those arms at work, so yay for us,” she tells Keith in a whisper, a mischievous smile on her face. Keith fights a blush for the second time that day.

It doesn’t take long for Shiro to hang them, and he turns on all the enchanted fairy lights in the shop with a snap of his fingers. The other strings Allura has hung around the shop give it a warm glow, soft pink and white lights hanging from the rafters amid drying herbs, over the windows, and across the front counter. Shiro’s and Allura’s white hair glow in the low light, reflecting the colours and adding an extra layer of attraction to the place.

It was kind of their thing, Allura had explained to him a while after Keith’s accidental summoning. Shiro was out doing late night deliveries, but she and Keith were upstairs in Shiro’s flat drinking his wine and trying to keep the pizza warm enough until he got back to eat it with them. They were all tall, white haired demons with charming personalities.

_All?_ Keith had asked, having only met the two of them. They had a third shop-mate, who usually did their accounting, but occasionally came in to help with front of house. Lotor was a little too snobby for dealing with customers, Allura confided in him after her third glass of wine, raised eyebrow and all. But he was good at dealing with banks and insurance brokers and whoever else. Keith didn’t want to ask why a little herbal shop needed to deal with insurance brokers and the like - he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Shiro used to have long hair too, she’d told Keith at one point. But he’d been mistaken for Lotor one too many times, and he’d shorn it off in vindication. He hasn’t been mistaken for anyone else since.

“What do you think, Keith? It looks good, right?” Shiro looks so pleased with himself that Keith can’t help but nod wordlessly at him. People don’t realise all his demon powers are in his cute smile, and it’s Keith’s downfall every time. “I saw a few other shops have red and pink decorations against the white snow and I thought it would look good in here too! Although the red was a little creepy, so pink it is.”

Allura raises her eyebrows at Keith, trying to tell him something. He cocks his head back at her, and she starts to do some kind of complicated dance with them. Has she been spending too much time with Lance? That’s pretty easy to do, in Keith’s opinion.

He brushes off whatever weirdness is going on, and misses her eyeroll as he turns his attention back to Shiro and picking up his weekly herbal order.

♡ ♡ ♡

Keith jolts back from the stove where he’s frying dinner as his lagging brain finally puts together the cues from what happened earlier at the herbal shop.

“Valentines!”

He actually shouts this loud enough that Kosmo pokes his head around the doorway of the kitchen, giving him an ‘are you okay’ look. He zaps in a little further and flops on the floor on his back, trying to look cute.

_That’s a human holiday._

“It is, yeah. It’s, uh, coming up soon.”

Kosmo hmms in a strange, dog-like way. _You’ve never talked about it._

Keith sighs, scraping the stir fry onto a waiting bowl of rice and dousing it in chopped green onions. “I’m not that into commercialised love holidays, I guess. But Shiro was hanging up pink lights in the store, he said he’d seen others in town.” He sits at the table, chopsticks in his mouth, and manages to make it almost a third of the way through his dinner before realising that Kosmo hasn’t begged for any of it. He looks up, suspicious.

The wolf is staring straight back at him, considering. _A love holiday. And Shiro._

“No.”

_Yes._

“ _No. _”__

Kosmo huffs a doggy sigh. _You are the dumbest master. Shiro will like Valentines things, especially if they come from you._

Keith looks at him out of the corner of his eye. “You think?” He stuffs another bite of rice in his mouth before he can incriminate himself further. Shiro did look pleased about hanging the lights up.

Kosmo smiles smugly at him from upside down. _I know. Also I want some stir-fry._

Keith rolls his eyes. “I didn’t make any more. Don’t you have a stash of snacks anyways?”

Kosmo grumbles at him and poofs away, leaving Keith to his Valentines related thoughts.

He narrows his eyes, fishing out a piece of tofu and a broccoli floret and crunching them thoughtfully. Would Shiro like it if he did Valentines things?

What even were Valentine’s things that people did?

Keith has his phone in one hand, chopsticks in the other, and comes up with a plan.

♡ ♡ ♡

Shiro is pretty interested in sweets. Keith learned this pretty much the first time they met up and Shiro had the largest, most sugar glazed donut he could possibly find. Keith had been confident it was more sugar than donut. There hadn’t really been savoury options at the cafe, so Keith was munching on the plainest muffin he could find - actually the blueberry was pretty good. But Shiro had sugar all over his lips that he licked away, and Keith had found he didn’t remember more than half of that first conversation. But he had walked away with some very useful information that he’s going to put to use now.

Keith accidentally-on-purpose tips over the remainder of his jar of hollyhock root and has to make an emergency mid-week stop at the herbal shop for more. On the way, he pops into a little bakery that he’d tried a few times; though not really having much of a sweet tooth, he’d only tried out their breads. The olive bread calls to him the moment he steps in, but he’s here for pastries. He smiles at the cashier before turning to the pastry case he’s never really looked at before, figuring the thing for Shiro will jump out when he sees it.

The selection is.. a little overwhelming. There are eclairs and cupcakes, scones and iced fancy buns and macarons decorated with hearts and ribbons of icing. He isn’t sure what they all are supposed to taste like except for sweet. Keith’s pretty sure he’s doing a great impression of a deer in headlights, and is a little relieved there isn’t a lineup behind him. It does mean that the baker behind the counter gets to watch him agonise over what to choose though, so that isn’t great.

“Need some help?” At least his voice is kind, like it always is. Hunk’s an acquaintance who is steadily becoming a good friend. He taught Keith a more efficient way of chopping ingredients that would lead to fewer injuries, once upon a time, and now they see each other on a semi-regular basis, although most of the time when frequenting Hunk’s bakery. “You’re not usually on this side of the store.”

“No..” Keith bites his lip before looking away from pastries. “I, uh, don’t really know..”

“Picking something up for someone?” Hunk has a way of seeing right through him, and Keith fights not to blush at the thought of Shiro opening the pastry box.

“Yeah, something like that. I’m just not sure.. What he likes? I know sweet stuff, but..”

Hunk considers him, and then considers the case of pastries. “Like, a little sweet, or super sweet? Chocolate, caramel, or fruit?”

“Uh, probably any of those?” Realising though that he’d probably need to give more information for either of them to make a decision, he continues. “Probably fruit, I don’t usually see him with caramel things.”

Hunk pulls out a tray of small tarts, decorated with little hearts and flowers. “We’ve got lemon, blueberry, and strawberry tarts today, any of these jump out to you?”

The lemon ones actually look pretty good to Keith, but he likes sour foods. The blueberry ones aren’t bad, but the strawberry ones - pink slices of strawberry on a custard base with powdered sugar on top and a few little heart sprinkles-

“The strawberry ones.” Hunk smiles, like he made the right choice. “Can I have two?”

“Of course,” Hunk pulls out a pastry box and carefully lifts two tarts into it. “Anything else?”

He debates for a moment and then, “yeah, can I have an olive loaf, too?” Keith ducks his head a little, like he doesn’t eat exclusively Hunk’s bread. “I really like that one.”

“I’m glad you do, bud!” Hunk just laughs and rings him up, before handing over the paper bag, which Keith immediately puts into his backpack, and the pastry box, which he holds onto as he leaves with a wave.

“Thanks again, and good luck, Keith!” Hunk calls after him.

The door shuts behind Keith, his face flaming red.

He manages to temper it by the time he makes it to the herbal shop, but pushing open the door he’s surprised to find only Allura at the counter.

“Oh, Keith! We don’t usually see you here at this time.” She looks up from her book to greet him. “What do you need?”

“I ran out of hollyhock,” he replies with wince. “I actually dropped my jar and it kind of exploded all over the floor. I had to keep Kosmo’s paws out of it and he wasn’t exactly pleased.”

Allura gives him a sympathetic smile, and turns to reach down the hollyhock for him. “How many grams?”

Keith sets the pastry box on the counter, noting how Allura’s eyes follow it before returning to him. He fishes his empty jar out of his bag. “About two-fifty should do me, I think.”

She takes the jar from him, setting it on their scale to fill it. Keith tries to be subtle as he checks behind her to see if Shiro is in the back room, but she catches him out.

“I’m afraid Shiro’s doing deliveries most of today,” she says conversationally as she weighs out Keith’s order. “If that’s who you’re looking for. He won’t be back until late tonight.”

“Oh,” Keith feels his shoulders slump, of course this would happen today. He tries not to look too discouraged in front of Allura because she will (and has) tease him about his crush on Shiro. He’s not sure how she figured it out, since he definitely didn’t tell her. At least she’s respectful about it, unlike some other friends of his. Or a certain familiar.

“I can pass him a message if you want..?” she offers, sliding his newly refilled hollyhock jar across the counter and ringing him up. “But I’m pretty sure you have his phone number.”

“Oh, yeah, no, that’s okay,” Keith stutters in return, paying quickly and then sliding the pastry box across the counter before he loses his nerve. “Also can you, um, give him these?”

She peeks inside the white box, and he sees when her eyes go wide. The box snaps shut and Allura looks up at him with a sly look. “Absolutely! I’ll put them in the fridge until he gets back tonight.” She finishes it up with a wink and a flourish of her hair, and Keith finds himself outside the shop, bell still ringing as the door closes behind him.

Stars, he’s glad Allura approves. She’d be terrifying otherwise.

He gets a text from Shiro late that evening, an aesthetic shot of the two plated pastries and two tea cups and two forks - Keith narrows his eyes. The text that follows says:

> [21:42] Shiro: _Keith these are delicious! We’re really enjoying them, thank you_ ❤️❤️

_We?_ Keith thinks, alarmed. A text from Allura follows shortly after.

> [21:43] Allura: _I’m so sorry, he insisted we share them! You know it’s hard to say no to Shiro. But they really are delicious_

Keith drops his head on the back of the sofa, eyes closed as he sighs. Okay, plan B.

♡ ♡ ♡

Last week, Keith had found conversation hearts when he was doing his regular grocery shop, and had had the foresight to buy the overpriced sugar pills for Shiro. That gesture had gone about as well as the previous gift of strawberry tarts, in that he read them all out to Keith or Allura or whoever was in the store, and then shoved them all in his mouth at the same time and crunched them happily. Allura gave him an exasperated look that Shiro either didn’t notice or ignored, and Keith left it as another defeat.

This time, though, they’re meeting up for coffee outside of the store since it’s been a while since they’ve been able to hang out just the two of them. Keith is purposefully leaving his gloves at home despite the chilly February air and rumour of more snow. The city has enough, in Keith’s correct opinion, but Shiro likes it so he can’t exactly fault the stuff.

He tugs a beanie over his hair, makes sure he’s got his scarf and coat, and stares down his gloves so that he doesn’t accidently put them in his pocket on autopilot. He’s got enough problems as it is.

Normally, Keith would have dropped the attempts after two failed ones, especially with Shiro - he doesn’t want to ruin their current relationship by being too forward or something. But this time.. Keith’s competitive side is kicking in and he’s not about to lose this one. He _will_ do Valentines things with Shiro.

Shiro is already in line by the time he gets to the coffee shop, and thankfully Lance is nowhere in sight, since this is the one he works at. It’s a risk to come here with Shiro because of, specifically, Lance’s eyebrow dance. He can’t actually tease them out loud when he’s working, but he can get significantly elaborate with his face when he wants to.

“Hey, Shiro,” Keith greets him as he steps up behind him in line, rubbing his hands together.

“Keith, hi! How was your walk over?” Shiro grins down at him, those little fangs poking out and making it hard for Keith to remember how words work.

“It was good,” he fumbles for more of an answer. “Pretty nice, actually. Do you want to go for a walk after we get these? It looked nice in the park as I passed by on the way here.”

Shiro hums as he surveys how Keith is dressed, always worried about his comfort. Keith tries not to blush - his usual state around Shiro. “We can do that,” he agrees after a moment. “Do you know what you want? They have some fun things today!

Keith pauses, since he usually only drinks black coffee or black tea - delicious, but not the most exciting of choices. But today they have several Valentine’s specials, including something with white chocolate and sprinkles, which he can tell just by the name Shiro will be getting, and a cinnamon hearts latte.

“The cinnamon hearts one looks pretty good actually,” he replies, not looking up at Shiro. He can feel him beaming anyways.

When the barista asks if he wants it regular cinna-spicy or extra cinna-spicy, he goes for extra spicy because that sounds better, and also because “cinna-spicy” sounds like something Lance came up with, and he doesn’t want to accidentally summon him here by saying it out loud. He’s used up his accidental summoning credits, he doesn’t need to try again to disastrous results. His first sip has his eyebrows flying up - it _is_ spicy, and actually really good. Shiro would probably hate it.

The demon in question is sipping his sugar laden monstrosity - it actually has two conversation hearts jammed into the quickly melting whipped cream on top. They say _be mine_ and _true love_ and Keith can’t handle it. He wills them to dissolve into Shiro’s cup before he looks at them again, face flaming.

“That’s pretty spicy, huh? Your face is really red.” Shiro looks a little concerned, but he’s also smiling, like he’s used to this from Keith.

“It’s good though,” he mumbles into his cup, taking another sip to distract himself. “Wanna head out?”

Shiro gestures for him to lead the way. “After you,” he smiles, opening the cafe door with one hand.

Outside is a little chillier than Keith had remembered, which is perfect. His latte is keeping his right hand warm, and he sticks his other in his pocket as he walks side by side with Shiro. They walk for a while through the park paths, watching some kids building a snowman, and seeing a few other couples outside holding hands.

It takes about fifteen minutes of walking before Keith shivers. His latte is about half gone, still impressively good for getting cold. The cinnamon seems to help with that. Shiro’s also been drinking slowly, his sprinkles and white chocolate drink still apparently satisfying. Or maybe he has to drink it slowly so his teeth don’t rot out all at once. Can demon teeth even rot? Maybe that’s why he can drink it.

“Hey,” Shiro pipes up beside him. “I thought you said you weren’t cold.” Shiro’s hand lands on his shoulder.

“I wasn’t!” Keith insists, fighting another shiver and taking another sip to compensate. “I forgot my gloves, but it wasn’t an issue on the way here.”

Shiro frowns, but whispers a short incantation and suddenly his hand is radiating a blazing warmth. Keith makes an embarrassing noise as it rubs across his back and down his opposite arm a few times, before Shiro actually reaches into his pocket and grabs his left hand in a tight grasp. “Better?”

Keith leans against him, squeezing back. “Yeah. Thanks, Shiro.” He braves a look up, but Shiro is looking out across the snowy grounds of the park. His cheeks are dusted a light pink, and Keith feels his heart flip in his chest. He’s still smiling after he gets home that evening.

♡ ♡ ♡

_Okay_ , Keith thinks to himself as he makes his way to the herbal shop’s door for the third time that week. _This can’t go wrong. It’s so obvious._ He’s trying hard not to be embarrassed at exactly how obvious he is carrying a decently large size bouquet of red roses, deep red carnations, and white chrysanthemums. There are some sprigs of pink and green to balance the whole thing out, but Keith still thinks it’s pretty overwhelming. He forces his way through the door regardless.

The bell rings cheerfully as he steps in and he sees Shiro turn to greet him like this is some kind of ridiculous rom-com. Keith’s pretty confident that’s what his life has become, actually.

“Keith!” Shiro’s making his way over to greet him as Keith closes the door, and they’re actually going to do this in the middle of the shop where everyone can see them. There aren’t a lot of customers, but Allura is definitely looking their way, and there’s a couple trying to sneak surreptitious glances over by the spices.

“Hey Shiro,” Keith tries to smile, but probably looks manic. He can’t worry about his face right now, and plows straight ahead, holding the flowers out to Shiro’s chest. “I saw these and thought you’d like them.”

“Thank you, Keith,” Shiro beams at him, taking the bouquet carefully and inhaling their aroma.

Keith feels like his face has been perpetually red for the past week. “It’s no problem.”

“I’ve been wanting some chrysanthemum lately, and roses are always great!”

“I-” Keith pauses, looking up at Shiro’s excited face as he smiles down at the bouquet. “You have?”

“Yeah!” And then he’s moving over towards the counter, laying down the bouquet and untying it. Keith is frozen in place. Shiro’s started sorting out the flowers by type, laying aside a few and filling a small vase on the counter. He whispers what sounds like a cleaning spell over the others, the faint scent of magic in the air, and then cheerfully starts stripping some of their bottom leaves and tying them together in bundles.

“Shiro-”

The demon looks up, humming in question as he snaps the head off a carnation, starting a little pile. Out of the corner of his eye, Keith can see Allura looking horrified, before she has to turn her head and stare into the middle distance. Keith.. was _sure_ this one would work. He should have guessed Shiro - a herbalist - would want to make use of them for more than just decoration.

“I- I’m really glad you’re enjoying them.”

♡ ♡ ♡

Keith stares at the ceiling, lying on his back on the floor. Okay. So the lattes were a hit. But every other cute Valentines thing that Keith had tried was a total bust. He doesn’t get what he was doing wrong? Like, he got gifts - some of them he’d even given directly to Shiro! - there were sweets, there were flowers, they even _held hands._

Keith might be having a crisis. At least, that’s what Kosmo had diagnosed him with before flopping all 120 lbs of doggy weight onto his stomach. He’s still there now.

_Are you recovered?_

“How can I recover from this.”

Kosmo huffs. _You are both stupid. Isn’t today the holiday? Call him._

Keith moves his hands to the familiar’s head, intent on pushing him off in a fit of pique, but his phone vibrates on the floor beside him before he can do it. Both their heads turn towards it, spotting Shiro’s name on the caller ID. Kosmo jumps up to answer it with a poke of his nose before Keith can swat him away, and suddenly he’s on speakerphone with the love of his life, in the middle of having a crisis about him. He’s ready to admit that much now.

“..Keith? Are you okay?” Shiro’s voice is a little tinny coming through the speakers, and it jolts Keith into responding.

“Uh, yeah! Sorry, Kosmo answered before I got a chance. What’s up?” He’s going for cool. He’s not sure he’s succeeding.

“Have you eaten yet? I’m trying out a new recipe, if you want to be a guinea pig.” Shiro’s voice sounds hopeful. Keith considers: Shiro is very hit-or-miss in the kitchen. Either this will turn out incredible and one of the best meals he’s ever eaten, or he’ll arrive just in time to prevent the oven from bursting into flames. Maybe it’s better if he goes over either way.

“I haven’t. I can come, sure. What time?” Keith smiles despite himself. He might be head over heels for the guy, but he’s also his best friend. Why wouldn’t he want to spend time with him?

“Anytime now is fine, I’m just getting started.” Keith can hear Shiro’s smile over the phone. “You can let yourself upstairs when you get here, the door’s unlocked.”

Keith smiles at his phone despite himself, and Kosmo actually rolls his eyes. Keith didn’t know dog eyes could do that. _Have fun_ , is all he says before poofing out of existence for the evening.

“Okay, I’ll make my way over now,” he says before saying goodbye. He’s pulling off his day old pyjamas before he’s even finished standing up, darting to his bedroom to find something to wear.

By the time he’s stuffing his feet into his boots and winding his scarf around his neck, his entire closet is thrown on the bed and he’s still wearing his usual outfit of black skinny jeans and oversized red sweater. He’s pulled his long hair back though, and thrown on a black choker, so that counts as dressed up, right? He leaves his apartment in a rush.

The walk to Shiro’s is brisk, and he’s cupping his hands over his face to keep his nose warm by the time he arrives. The door is open to Keith’s touch, and he toes his boots off inside as per usual. Whatever Shiro’s cooking smells like a success this time, which is a relief. Keith slides into his usual red slippers that Shiro keeps by the door for him, hanging his coat and bag on the hook with a little K charm.

“Hey, Shiro!” he calls into the apartment, hearing an answering call from the kitchen, as expected. He makes his way through the space, navigating around incoming boxes of teas and herbs Shiro’s been playing around with. He leans on the doorframe watching his friend move happily around his kitchen. “It smells really good.”

“Hah,” Shiro turns and smiles at him. “It’s just a pasta bake, but I made the sauce from scratch this time. I think it’ll be good!” He’s just about to put it in the oven, and Keith reflexively checks the temperature - not too hot, good. And there’s a timer already ticking away. Keith whispers a little spell for the oven to actually turn itself off when the timer is done. Shiro must feel the magic in the air, because he sticks his tongue out at Keith over his shoulder.

“What?”

Shiro purses his lips. “Nothing, Keith. I- oh.” He pauses, and Keith gets to watch his face turn red in real time. He cocks his head.

“You okay?”

Shiro stares at him for a moment, and then shakes his head, looking like he’s gearing up for something. “Okay. You can do this.” It sounds like he’s talking to himself at first. “Keith, I- uh. Actually, um, look up.”

Keith does, confused. He doesn’t get any less confused when he sees three of the roses from the arrangement he’d brought Shiro the other day hanging upside down from the doorframe. He looks back at Shiro. “You’re drying the roses here?”

Shiro blinks back at him. “I- drying them?”

Keith is lost. He fumbles for something else to say but Shiro manages to beat him to it. “No, I mean. Keith.” He says his name like it’s a full sentence. “The flowers. It’s- isn’t it a human tradition to- to kiss under hanging flowers on holidays?”

If Keith was lost before, it’s nothing compared to now. “Hanging flowers?” Then his brain catches up with all the words Shiro’s just said and he sputters, “K-kiss? I- you want to kiss me?”

They stare at each other a little longer, both of their faces red now. Distantly, Keith is glad their dinner is in the oven and he’s already set that spell for the timer. Foresight. It reminds him that today is the 14th- Valentines- _holidays_ , and things click into place. “You mean _mistletoe?_ That’s uh, just for Christmas.”

“I- oh.” Shiro looks like he might have short-circuited, his blush strong enough Keith can see it through the short strands of his white hair. “So, you don’t-”

“We don’t really hang flowers like this, no.” Shiro ducks his head with a wince. “But, uh, it’s fine. It’s pretty cute, actually.” Keith, feeling a little bold, reaches out and takes Shiro’s hand. “You can, um, still kiss me if you want. I’d like that.”

Maybe all those gifts worked after all. Shiro smiles at him, shy and sweet, before reaching to cup Keith’s face. He hesitates for a second, just before their lips touch.

Keith closes the rest of the distance, pressing up into Shiro, feeling his lips move just slightly against his own. It’s soft, chaste, and lasts just a few seconds before they’re pulling back to look at each other, both pink-cheeked and smiling.

“Allura told me about Valentine’s Day this morning,” Shiro confesses, having the decency to look a little sheepish. “I don’t really get human holidays. But I like this one.”

Keith snorts a laugh. “You didn’t know? I thought you liked the lights and decorations, that’s why you were putting them up in the shop!” He pokes Shiro in the chest, the demon stumbling back a bit with the force of it. “I guess this is why you didn’t really say anything about those Valentine’s treats.”

“Treats?” Shiro cocks his head and then his eyes grow wide. “ _Oh_ , the flowers?” Keith nods. “And the candy hearts?” he nods again.

“And the strawberry tarts,” Keith confesses. Shiro looks horrified.

“I shared those with Allura! Oh nooo, Keith, I’m sorry,” he drops his white head onto Keith’s shoulder, trying not to laugh. Keith runs his nails through his shorn hair, biting his own lips.

“If you want to make it up to me,” he starts, and Shiro’s head pops up off his shoulder.

“Dinner?”

Keith smiles, running a fingertip along Shiro’s pointed ear and down his strong jaw. He shudders under the touch. “That too. But maybe, you could kiss me again?”

Shiro breaks out into a smile. “I can definitely do that.”

It turns out that Keith’s spell for the oven had been a good idea, because it’s a good hour later that Shiro pushes himself off Keith where he’d been leaning over him on the couch.

“Pasta!”

He’s running to the kitchen before Keith really realises that Shiro’s tongue isn’t in his mouth anymore. He’s mourning that loss more than anything.

Shiro ends up bringing dinner to the living room tonight, along with a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates to share. As they cuddle into the early hours of the morning, finishing both the wine and chocolates between sweet kisses, Keith thinks that maybe Valentine’s isn’t so bad, after all. He can get used to this.

♡ ♡ ♡

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on twitter at [thimblee](http://twitter.com/thimblee) to shout about Sheith!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [And Your Hand to Hold (The Demon Courtship Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24794029) by [stardropdream](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardropdream/pseuds/stardropdream)




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